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(Inspired by a comment in an answer about CLOCK$ which says: the 'symbols with a dollar sign are reserved to us' was also a DEC convention, certainly on RSX-11M systems)

In Windows, network shares that end with $ are not listed to connecting machines (for example, when use net view). This includes several pre-defined ones - ADMIN$, IPC$, C$ for C:\ etc. - and also custom shares. Presumably, this was also the case with LAN Manager, from which many Windows sharing mechanism inherit their behavior.

Where does this convention come from?

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    Yes, this was also the case with LAN Manager, starting with 1.0; see for example this reference in the LAN Manager OS/2 Administrator Reference.
    – Stephen Kitt
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 14:29
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    As a general comment, operating systems often come up with some convention for "this name is not generally interesting, so we'll hide it from listings". The dot convention in Unix, the H attribute for files in DOS, and the trailing-dollar-sign convention on Windows shares are all aspects of the same thing.
    – dave
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 17:13
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    @another-dave with the caveat that the dot convention was an accident turned into a feature, not designed.
    – Stephen Kitt
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 18:08

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